Month: October 2013

Holy Shit! One Dude (Basically) Books this Whole Thing! An Interview with FunFunFunFest’s Graham Williams

October 31, 2013

The 8th FunFunFunFest kicks off next week in Austin and though it may not strictly be an extreme music fest along the lines of the usual multi-day extravaganzas featured in this space, it is one of the largest fests I’ll have the opportunity to write about and still offers a shit-ton of metal and hardcore…

Decibrity Playlist: Skeletonwitch

October 31, 2013

Dustin Boltjes has a lot of reasons to be pumped right now. His band Skeletonwitch released its fifth (and possibly best) full-length, Serpents Unleashed, on Tuesday (probably the most important item on this list). The Ohio quintet just kicked off a string of tourdates alongside The Black Dahlia Murder. Oh, and he and bandmate Chance…

Metal Yoga With André Foisy #1

October 30, 2013

André Foisy plays guitar in Locrian and is a certified yoga instructor who teaches at Turbodog Yoga in Chicago, IL. You can find his yoga teaching schedule and more information about him on his blog. When I tour, I notice that parts of my body start to hurt once that I begin sitting in a…

Preview a live Municipal Waste track from “Decibel’s 100th Issue Show: The Movie” DVD!

October 30, 2013

You may have noticed that Decibel hit the 100-issue mark earlier this year. You may have even heard we threw a little party to celebrate that achievement. But did you know we also filmed and it turned into a fucking movie? Yeah, you probably knew that, too. But did you know that it will finally…

Sucker For Punishment: And then my MIND split open

October 30, 2013

As you probably know from the endless stream of obituaries, tributes, and remembrances, Lou Reed died this past Sunday morning. Interestingly, none of the prominent metal blogs have mentioned his passing, save for the odd snarky remark about how we’ll never have a sequel to Lulu now. And it’s understandable, I suppose, because Reed’s music…

Six Steps Toward Extreme Metal Halloween Preparedness

October 29, 2013

Halloween is this Thursday. Decibel wants you to be ready. 1. Minor Threat-aping Texas Chainsaw Massacre T-shirt The genius behind this Salad Days EP cover re-imagining… …should start an agency with whoever came up with “Guilty of Being Dwight” pic below, stat: (Picture cribbed from the Salad Days: The D.C. Punk Revolution documentary Facebook page.)…

STREAMING: Germ’s “Grief”

October 29, 2013

The solo project of the incredibly prolific Tim Yatras (Austere, Grey Waters, ex-Nazxul, ex-Woods of Desolation, etc), Germ is, in a lot of ways, a band in disguise – which is appropriate, considering it’s almost Halloween. Instead of being a sexy pirate or sexy pizza, though, this is a killer post-punk/new wave band dressed as…

STREAMING: The Golden Grass “One More Time”

October 29, 2013

Limited edition records are kind of stupid. Every record, even Michael Jackson’s Thriller, are limited. At least, that’s what the late great Doug Earp (he of Wyatt Earp Records; Repulsion fans take note) said to me one day while I was buying a Cathedral Soul Sacrifice 12″. And he was absolutely right. Nevertheless, labels continue…

Venom – “Black Metal”

October 28, 2013

Black Metal’s induction to the Decibel Hall of Fame was inevitable. There’s simply no getting around its influence.

EXCLUSIVE STREAM: Demonical “King Of All”

October 28, 2013

Dearest death-heads, please affix your finest gurn of appreciation as we welcome an exclusive stream of “King of All”, a real chunky piece of slo-mo O.S.D.M. chug taken from Demonical’s gnarly forthcoming Metal Blade LP, Darkness Unbound. As you would expect from Demonical, Darkness Unbound is one unsophisticated beast; Demonical, lest we forget, are graduates…

VIDEO PREMIERE: From Hell “Holy War”

October 28, 2013

Michigan’s From Hell is the latest quality act from the Motor City. Self-described as d-beat meets thrash meets goth, From Hell’s Dischange-covering-Converge-with-Boss-HM-2s-hooked-up-for-maximum-effect is right down our proverbial plate. The group’s new full-length, Heresy, has been out since June, but From Hell are just now premiering—thanks to Paper+Plastick Records—the video for Heresy’s most intense track, “Holy…

Andrew Craighan (My Dying Bride) interviewed

October 25, 2013

** We make it no secret we’re fans of My Dying Bride. From their Hall of Fame induction to innumerable citations in pages and blogs, My Dying Bride has appealed to our inner and outer miser for an age or two. Well, this session was originally sent off to My Dying Bride in June, hoping…

Decibel’s TOP 100 BLACK METAL ALBUMS OF ALL TIME special issue available now!

October 25, 2013

Back in the fall of 2010, we gave you an early double dose of Halloween and winter, courtesy of the Black Metal Hall of Fame special issue. Three years later, we’re taking our corpsepaint craving to the next demented level and unveiling the Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time. We corralled our staff…

Label Hack Update: Nonsun Drop More Drone

October 25, 2013

We always enjoy finding cool new sound-sculptors out in the cyber world, especially when we can use this blog forum to turn other people on to some under-the-radar artists.  We love it even more when those artists’ musical ventures make progress beyond their own self-run webpages. Earlier this year, we featured Ukrainian drone-doomers Nonsun as…

BREWTAL TRUTH: Smashing A Craft Beer Fallacy

October 25, 2013

It’s not even officially “out” (even though you can already download it if you have a digital subscription), but we’re already getting heat via Twitter for our new Brewtal Truth column in issue #110 where we take to task metal bands for flying the flag for Coors Light in their band promo photos. In one…

Melt-Banana Interviewed. Both of ’em.

October 24, 2013

Tokyo’s Melt-Banana has been airing their newfound status as a two-piece for the first time in North America for about a week now with about three more weeks to go. It’s been a tumultuous term for vocalist Yasuko “Yako” Onuki and guitarist Ichiro Agata that’s seen them embrace life as a duo (and almost break…

Decibrity Playlist: Ihsahn

October 24, 2013

Ihsahn–a man who needs no introduction around these parts–has certainly not been bereft of musical ideas lately. He dropped his fifth solo album (coming a mere 16 months after its predecessor) earlier this week and is already talking about its follow-up. To celebrate the release of Das Seelenbrechen, which Adrien Begrand described in our latest…

Streaming: Pentagram (Chile) — “The Apparition”

October 23, 2013

We have some streaming goodness available for the Deciblog faithful today. Please check out the new tune “The Apparition” from Pentagram (Chile) below. Frontman Anton Reisenegger said the following about the track: “‘The Apparition’ must be one of my favorite tracks on the album because it has this amazing early Slayer vibe. Haunting The Chapel…

Sucker For Punishment: My soul, it’s breaking!

October 23, 2013

Despite a pair of albums that will be on my personal year-end list, this week is on the light side, which admittedly is a welcome breather, because it’s a mere ripple compared to the tsunami of new stuff coming out in a week’s time. Seriously, next week looms over me like Ivan Drago. But first…

EXCLUSIVE STREAM: EMPIRE OF RATS

October 23, 2013

Today we’re streaming the uber-brutal debut full-length from Columbus, Ohio skull-crushers Empire of Rats — and it’s basically an unforgiving swan dive into the metallic hardcore abyss. Check it out below, then preorder this monster as an early Halloween gift for yourself here before heading over to get tickets for the band’s A389 X Bash…

TRACK PREMIERE: Czar’s “Lurvy”

October 22, 2013

That stark, black and white photo of a line of men dangling from nooses on the cover of No One Is Alone If No One Is Alive doesn’t exactly paint Czar as a cheery band. They aren’t, really – but they also don’t sound as lifeless as one might expect.  they basically play noise rock, but…

Visual Violence: Freya’s Brendon Flynn

October 22, 2013

This morning Decibel is pleased to exclusively premiere this video interview with Freya guitarist/visual artist Brendon Flynn in which he discusses the intricate, elegant artwork he created for the band’s most diverse and intriguing offering yet, Paragon of the Crucible: Preorder Paragon of the Crucible here. Check out a track from the album here. Download…

INTERVIEW: Fight Amp’s Mike McGinnis

October 21, 2013

Even though they are just off the red-eye after spending 30 days playing 30 shows across Europe with Black Tusk, there is plenty juice left in Fight Amp. New Jersey/Philly’s undisputed heavyweight noise rock/HC/punk/sludge/OTHER champs have one show left on the calendar, but Mike McGinnis just wants to keep on going. The Deciblog caught up…

Vincent Cavanagh (Anathema) interviewed

October 21, 2013

** Decibel caught up with Anathema guitarist/vocalist Vincent Cavanagh on the group’s first headline tour of North America. Since we’ve been into the Liverpudlians before they had a full-length [many thanks to tape-traders and Witchhunt Records], we jumped at the chance to talk to Cavanagh, who was clearly having moments of his life while on…

For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Pecks of the Week

October 18, 2013

Sorry I’ve been away for a little bit, but your old boy Waldo took a little trip to his roots and hit the Amazon. I’m back now. Let’s dive right into it, shall we? The term “supergroup”: well, what else would you call a band comprised of Scott Kelly, Mike Williams, Sanford Parker and Bruce…

BREWTAL TRUTH: Beer-Soaked Doom at the GABF

October 18, 2013

Great American Beer Festival, Denver, ColoradoOct. 10-12, 2013 It would be an overstatement to say that this was the Year of Metal at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, but the handful of extreme music diehards—from TRVE, Surly, Real Ale and Three Floyds pictured above—among the 600-plus breweries present at the festival, definitely made…

VIDEO PREMIERE: Seeker’s “When Hope Fails”

October 18, 2013

Okay kids, I’ve seen a LOT of horror movies. It’s hard to freak me out. But this video FREAKS ME THE HELL OUT. That’s a real woman and that’s real steel through her flesh and that’s her real skin stretching like that and urgh. It’s way too early in the morning for Hellraiser shit. That…

Monolithe: Full Album Stream!

October 17, 2013

Too many approval-stampers are content to shovel anything slow, synth-shrouded and packed with molasses-dark death growls into a funeral doom-shaped hole in the earth.  One self-important windbag (the one in charge of this Deciblog post) would suggest that “funeral doom” must actually beckon from the grave and whisper oh-so-reasonably that bathing with sharp objects is…

Join the Crusades

October 17, 2013

The upcoming Crusades record Perhaps You Deliver This Judgment With Greater Fear Than I Receive It is now available for pre-order, and we’ve got a sneak peek at what these Canadian anti-theists have been up to with the exclusive stream of a heretical rager entitled “The Torchbearer” below: Follow the band on Tumblr and Twitter….